Italy

[IT] Broadcasting rights for football granted to Cecchi Gori Group and to Europa TV

IRIS 1996-4:1/26

Roberto Mastroianni

RTS Radio Télévision Suisse, Geneva

On 29 February of this year the Italian Football Union assigned the rights to broadcast football matches for the years 1996-1999.

The Presidents of the Football Federations of the first and second division decided for the first time not to confirm the assignment of rights to the public broadcaster RAI.

The winner was the Cecchi Gori Group, a private broadcaster which controls two national channels; TeleMontecarlo and Videomusic.

The offer made by the Cecchi Gori Group was 640 billion Lire for three years (about 400 millions U.S. dollars) and includes domestic rights, both for radio and TV, as well as international rights. The offer made by RAI was of 580 billion Lire. The Berlusconi Group ( Mediaset ) offered 510 billion.

Europa TV, a private broadcaster which controls channels Tele+1 and Tele+2, and already transmits football games on pay-TV, obtained again the rights for pay-TV and pay-per-view. In this case, the offer accepted by the League was of 203 billion Lire for three years. The public broadcaster RAI was not allowed to participate in the assignement of pay-TV and pay-per-view rights since current law only grants private broadcasters the right to transmit in an encrypted format ( see : IRIS 1996-1:8).